Princesses & Canada Day Moose Cake

The arrival of Baby Boo 2 is coming up quick. We’ve been busy little monkey’s running around getting the nursery ready. It looks amazing and I’ll definitely have pictures up soon. The tummy’s getting huge too. Melissa has six weeks to go and her tummy is bigger than when she was 2 weeks overdue with Tyler. It’s a lot of fun watching and feeling our little monkey moving around in there and we can’t wait to meet him or her.

On Wednesday my clients, Rockin’ River Productions, flew me up to Fort McMurray to help with the Dwight Yoakam concert that they were putting on. It was a great show even if you aren’t into that kind of music and everyone there was just having a blast. Except for the lady who left her kid alone so she could go into the beer garden. BRUTAL!! The RCMP helped explain some parenting rules to her as they escorted her out of the concert. Rockin’ River’s holding their second annual River Fest music festival in Mission on August 13 & 14, so if you’re into country music you should definitely check it out.

And to put a big smile on your face, here are a couple videos of the kids having some fun. The first one is of Tyler and Grover just playing around. You definitely get to see what great buds they are. And the second video is of Tyler cracking the eggs for a cake. I’m SOOO proud! She used to just smash them, so it’s great that she can actually open them up without leaving shells in the bowl.

Sorta Healthy Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

This our our favourite cookie recipe. They have lots of healthy ingredients in there, so you have less guilt when you have one extra cookie.

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter or margarine
1 cup packed brown sugar (Feel free to cut down on the sugar amounts. The cookies still turn out great. And don’t pack the brown sugar.)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup flax
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 16 minutes in the preheated oven until lightly browned. Depending on the oven they can sometimes take up to 20 minutes to bake.
4. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!!

Less Than Two Months to GO!!

It’s less than two months to go before our new little Monkey is here. His/Her room is all painted up like Tyler’s old room and we’re getting the clothes organized, crib ready and an overnight bag packed, cause you never know when our day will be.

This week we got out for one last camping trip before our little Monkey comes so we headed up to Davis Lake and had a nice relaxing break on the lake. Thanks Dan & Jacquie! Pictures have been posted to the site so be sure to check those out.

And here’s a quick video of Tyler & Grover playing dress-up.

We Now Have a 3 Year Old! Eek!

Tyler had an amazing birthday weekend! Big thanks to Zadie and Grandpa for the party’s they threw for Tyler. And a big THANK YOU to everyone else who celebrated with her. You all DEFINITELY spoiled her rotten. The party on Saturday was a great last bash to send off the old house. A few more days of packing and then it’s MOVING DAY!!!! We’re so excited! Have a great week everyone!

So What’s It Going to Be?!

We aren’t going to peek, but we can all guess. What’s your guess for the specs on our new model? Curb weight/height, release date, etc. You can vote online here: http://www.expectnet.com/logingame.php?game_name=BabyBooTwo. We look forward to seeing the guesses and will have a small prize for the winner.

The estimated due date is August 10th. For a reference Tyler was 7 lbs 12 oz and 21 inches.

Good luck!!

The Monkey House is Moving

Yup, that’s right. The monkey’s are up and moving. We LOVE our current house, but it just isn’t big enough for our growing family. So we’re up and moving to the suburbs. Yes hick town Mission has suburbs and we found em. We’re talkin’ 2 storey and a basement with four bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 car garage, large theatre/rec room, covered back patio that walks out to our large flat fenced yard and all this on a cul-de-sac. It’ll be perfect for our 2 1/2 kids. We’re moving the beginning of May and couldn’t be more excited. Plus we got to see more pics of the new little one and the Miwi says everything looks great!! We’ve been enjoying the outdoors when we can, had a great easter and just went for a fun walk in the park with Grover and some of his relatives. Be sure to check out the new pics and the funny video of Tyler.

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!! And a big hello to the fans in Oklahoma. We just posted LOTS of pictures of Grover from our walk with Charley’s Daddy.

Chili

This is our favourite chili recipe. It was originally a knock off of the Wendy’s chili recipe, though we’ve made it our own. Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef cooked and drain the fat (You can substitute double the beans for the beef if you want to keep this vegetarian)
One 29-ounce can tomato sauce
One 29-ounce can kidney beans (with liquid)
One 29-ounce can black beans (with liquid)
1 cup diced onion (1 medium onion)
1/2 cup diced green chilis (1 small can of chilis)
1/2 cup diced celery (2 stalks)
1 1/2 cups corn niblets
3 medium tomatoes (Fresh or 1 big can diced tomatoes)
2 teaspoons cumin powder
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons salt

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients in a large slow cooker and let it simmer for 12 hours. Be sure to include the liquid from the corn, beans, tomatoes and chilis. We often leave the slow cooker on low over night with the lid closed and then turn it up to high the next day so it’s ready for dinner. While it’s on high keep the lid open a bit so it’ll reduce and make sure you stir it every hour or so.

You could also cook this in a big pot, just make sure it has a nice thick bottom and also stir the chili more frequently.

Lately we’ve been making our cornbread recipe to go with the chili.

Cornbread Recipe

I’ve been making this cornbread recipe for the past few months and people seem to LOVE it! So here it is for you to try out yourself.

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk (Soy milk also works)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 can corn niblets (about 1 cup)

Directions

1. Combine the milk and cornmeal in a bowl. Stir it up and let it soak for 20 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
3. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk, vegetable oil, corn niblets, cornmeal and milk mixture until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean.
5. Let the cornbread cool for a few minutes and then flip it onto a cooling rack.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

We hope you all had a nice relaxing weekend. Here are a couple of Tyler’s latest video’s. Have a great week!

Valentine’s Cookie Chocolate Face

Tyler Singing Her ABC’s

Tyler Singing

Here’s a quick video of Tyler doing her little dance for Beyonce’s song “Single Ladies”. Enjoy! We hope everyone’s getting to enjoy the nice weather out there. I also posted a bunch of pictures from our latest adventures.